Three veteran home buyers filed a class action lawsuit against Veterans United Home Loans Wednesday, claiming the company illegally steered veterans to pricier mortgages and falsely insinuated an affiliation with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The plaintiffs include veterans Christian Peyton, Salem Zahn and Ernest Easter who each used Veterans United Home Loans to purchase properties between 2022 and 2025.
“Our lawsuit against Veterans United is two-fold,” Steve W. Berman, managing partner and co-founder of Hagens Berman, the law firm representing the plaintiffs said. “First, we believe Veterans United has engaged in blatantly illegal practices that have harmed home buyers through predatory loan practices, and second, Veterans United has sought to deceive our nation’s military servicemembers by masquerading as affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.”
The plaintiffs claim Veterans United Home Loans funneled home buyers to a network of “preferred agents.” Unbeknownst to buyers, these agents gave Veterans United Home Loans a 35% kickback and steered buyers to use Veterans United Home Loans, which plaintiffs say are more costly and have higher interest rates compared to other lenders.
“If the agents do not do so, they stop receiving leads,” the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, reads.
The lawsuit alleges the mortgage company violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), as well as Missouri’s Merchandising Practices Act, and claims unjust enrichment.
RESPA bans kickbacks that may increase the costs of securing a mortgage or other settlement services and applies to any transaction involving a federally related mortgage loan.
The defendant in Wednesday’s case denied wrongdoing.
“For 24 years we have been committed to serving Veterans and military families with love, care and respect,” a spokesperson for Veterans United Home Loans said. “We deny the accusations and look forward to disputing this through the legal process. Because this is pending litigation, we can’t comment further.”
On its website, Veterans United Home Loans says it has closed more than half a million “VA loans” since forming in 2002 and calls itself the “#1 VA lender for home buyers” in America.
